Murder suspect eyed in second slaying

BLAIRSVILLE, Ga., Jan. 9 (UPI) -- The man accused of killing a Georgia hiker also is the focus of an investigation in Florida probing the disappearance and death of a nurse.

Sgt. Rob Reisinger of the Leon County Sheriff's Department said Gary Michael Hilton, 61, may have been involved in the death of Cheryl Dunlap, whose body was found last month in Apalachicola National Forest southwest of Tallahassee, CNN reported Wednesday.

Reisinger said investigators believe Hilton was in the area at the time of Dunlap's disappearance because he came in contact with a forestry agent who wrote down his vehicle's tag number, the network reported.

Hilton was being held without bond in Georgia. He led authorities this week to Meredith Emerson's body in Dawson County.

Lee Darragh, district attorney for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit in Georgia, said he planned to present the case to a grand jury, possibly in early March, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Emerson, a 24-year-old University of Georgia graduate, was last seen with Hilton on a north Georgia mountain on New Year's Day. An autopsy indicated she was probably alive for three days before she died from a blow to the head.

An autopsy showed she was decapitated after she died.